Issac Newton

… was born on this date in 1643.

The NOVA website devoted to Einstein talks also of the genius of Newton.

There is a parlor game physics students play: Who was the greater genius? Galileo or Kepler? (Galileo) Maxwell or Bohr? (Maxwell, but it’s closer than you might think). Hawking or Heisenberg? (A no-brainer, whatever the best-seller lists might say. It’s Heisenberg). But there are two figures who are simply off the charts. Isaac Newton is one. The other is Albert Einstein. If pressed, physicists give Newton pride of place, but it is a photo finish — and no one else is in the race.

Newton’s claim is obvious. He created modern physics. His system described the behavior of the entire cosmos — and while others before him had invented grand schemes, Newton’s was different. His theories were mathematical, making specific predictions to be confirmed by experiments in the real world. Little wonder that those after Newton called him lucky — “for there is only one universe to discover, and he discovered it.”

Obama’s speeches

Ezra Klein analyzes Obama’s speechmaking. It includes this:

Obama’s finest speeches do not excite. They do not inform. They don’t even really inspire. They elevate. They enmesh you in a grander moment, as if history has stopped flowing passively by, and, just for an instant, contracted around you, made you aware of its presence, and your role in it.

He is exciting

Nearly twice as many Democrats turned out in Iowa tonight as compared to four years ago — 239,000 compared to 125,000.

Only 108,000 Republicans attended Thursday’s caucuses. And this is a state that went for Bush in 2004 (though by a relatively small margin).

And there’s these interesting statistics from Tim Dickinson at Rolling Stone:

  1. Obama beat Hillary among women voters 35 to 30 percent.
  2. Amid record Democratic turnout, as many people under 30 showed up to caucus as those over 65.
  3. Sixty percent of the GOP electorate in Iowa were born-again Christians.
  4. Rudy Giuliani finished with a mere 4,013 votes, in sixth place, with less than half of the support of Ron Paul.

Are cellphones dangerous to flight?

Ask the pilot, Patrick Smith answers the question: Are cellphones dangerous to flight? First, he tells us why we have to put other electronics away during takeoffs and landings.

Before getting to cellphones, passengers should know that the restrictions pertaining to computers, iPods and certain other devices have nothing to do with electronic interference at all. For instance, laptops. In theory, a poorly shielded notebook computer can emit harmful energy, but the main reason laptops need to be put away for takeoff and landing is to prevent them from becoming 200-mph projectiles in the event of an impact or sudden deceleration, and to help keep the passageways clear during an evacuation. Your computer is a piece of luggage, and luggage needs to be stowed so it doesn’t kill somebody or get in the way.

In the case of iPods and the like, it has to do with the headphones. During takeoffs and landings, you need to be able to hear and follow instructions if there’s an emergency. That’s hard to do if you’ve got your MP3 player cranked to 11.

Key point: “I would venture to guess that at least half of all cellular phones, whether inadvertently or out of laziness, are left on during flight.”

More on The Wire

David Simon responds to Matthew Yglesias’s thinking The Wire has too bleak a vision of the urban world.

You might want to scroll back up to the top to see what Yglesias says before reading Simon’s comment, but the link is to the comment.

The Wire

On the eve of the fifth (and final) season of the HBO series “The Wire,” Mark Bowden profiles creator David Simon, The Angriest Man In Television.

As The Wire unveiled its fourth season in 2006, Jacob Weisberg of Slate, in a much-cited column, called it “the best TV show ever broadcast in America.” The New York Times, in an editorial (not a review, mind you) called the show Dickensian.

Season five begins Sunday.

Note: Bowden’s profile is admiring but not friendly toward Simon.

NewMexiKen thinks The Wire is so good — and I haven’t even completed watching the first season on DVD yet — that I have acquired all four seasons on disk and — AND — am seriously considering satellite TV after a two year lapse from cable — just to get HBO just to get this show.

Good for him

Last night’s Fiesta Bowl was tough for Oklahoma fans but it turns out it was a great job interview for West Virginia interim coach Bill Stewart. The 48-28 win got him the job.

Oh, and go read this ODE TO OWEN SCHMITT.

The guy is weeping and the silly reporter still asks him “What does this mean to you?” A great moment anyway.

“Bill Stewart’s crying, everyone’s hugging, and Owen Schmitt starts to talk about his team, his state, and his home and just completely and gloriously loses his shit.” (Every Day Should Be Saturday)

Grammy

Here, while I think about it, are the nominees for the top four Grammy awards. The awards show is Sunday, February 10. The CD Grammy Nominees 2008 will be released January 29.

Album Of The Year:
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Foo Fighters)
These Days (Vince Gill)
River: The Joni Letters (Herbie Hancock)
Graduation (Kanye West)
Back To Black (Amy Winehouse)

Record Of The Year:
“Irreplaceable” (Beyoncé)
“The Pretender” (Foo Fighters)
“Umbrella” (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z)
“What Goes Around…Comes Around” (Justin Timberlake)
“Rehab” (Amy Winehouse)

Song Of The Year:
“Before He Cheats,” John Kear & Chris Tompkins, songwriters (Carrie Underwood, artist)
“Hey There Delilah,” Tom Higgenson, songwriter (Plain White T’s, artist)
“Like A Star,” Corinne Bailey Rae, songwriter (Corinne Bailey Rae, artist)
“Rehab,” Amy Winehouse, songwriter (Amy Winehouse, artist)
“Umbrella,” Shawn Carter, Kuk Harrell, Terius “Dream” Nash & Christopher Stewart, songwriters (Rihanna Featuring Jay-Z, artist)

Best New Artist:
Feist
Ledisi
Paramore
Taylor Swift
Amy Winehouse

GRAMMY.com

January 3rd

Today is the birthday

… of George Martin. The man who produced The Beatles’ records is 82.

… of Dabney Coleman. Franklin M. Hart Jr. is 76 (that’s the boss in Nine To Five).

… of Bobby Hull. The hockey hall-of-famer is 69.

… of Stephen Stills. The rock and roll hall-of-famer is 63.

… of John Paul Jones. No, not the Navy guy. The Led Zeppelin guy. He’s 62.

… of Victoria Principal. Pamela Barnes Ewing (Dallas) is 58.

… of Mel Gibson. Old Blood and Guts is 52.

… of Danica McKellar, 33. You know, Winnie from The Wonder Years.

… of Eli Manning, 27.

J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on this date in 1892. Tolkien is best known for his fantasy novels The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-1955).

Joseph de Veuster was born on this date in 1840. Known as Father Damien, the Belgian priest spent the last 16 years of his life ministering to the leper colony on Molokai.

“This is my work in the world. Sooner or later I shall become a leper, but may it not be until I have exhausted my capabilities for good.”

With King Kamehameha, Damien’s statue is one of the two chosen by Hawaii to be displayed in Statuary Hall in the nation’s Capitol.

Source: Hawaii State Government: Father Damien

2008 Health Tips

3. Adding milk to tea negates the health-giving effects of a hot brew.

5. Cloudy apple juice is healthier than clear, containing almost double the antioxidants which protect against heart disease and cancer.

6. Dishcloths are purged of 99% of their bacteria during two minutes in a microwave.

The above from BBC News and its list of 100 things we didn’t know last year. The list touches on a vast array of subjects with links to details.

14. Antony and Cleopatra were ugly.

Hang ’em high

Less than two hours into 2008 a drunk (who registered .16, or twice the legal limit) killed two people on an Albuquerque street.

For the most part, NewMexiKen is opposed to the death penalty. But I suggest that, if you drink and drive and kill someone, and if you are convicted by a jury of your peers, you be hanged by the side of the road where the homicide took place and that your body be left hanging there permanently as a warning to others.

Yes, I am serious. Drunk drivers kill more people every three months than have been killed by all the terrorists in our country’s history. Which are you more afraid will kill you?

Best response to a Republican candidate’s BS, so far

Tristero at Hullaballo reacts to Willard Mitt Romney. First Romney’s remark, then Tristero.

“We’ll try and represent ourselves and our nation well also to our kids because I think, I think kids watch the White House and there have been failures in the past in the White House — if you go back to the Clinton years and recognize that — that I think had an enormous impact on the culture of our country”

Oh, where to start? Well, for starters, I suppose Romney’s saying that the “enormous impact” of Monica’s blowjob “on the culture our country” was responsible for Trent Lott’s racist defense of Strom Thurmond, the substance abuse problems of Jeb Bush’s daughter, the meth-fueled extramarital sex sessions of the former Reverend Ted Haggard, Larry Craig’s widening stance, Bush/Iraq war supporter Brittney Spears’ shaved head, and maybe even Cheney’s inebriated behavior around loaded shotguns. Or maybe Romney has in mind serial adulterers in his own party like Scaife, Gingrich, Hyde, and Giuliani. Who knew a little fellatio was so insidious that it could cause David Addington and Alberto Gonzalez to countenance torture, or Tom Delay to use the Office of Homeland Security to help subvert the legislature of Texas? Or perhaps Romney had in mind the slimy christianist activists who Judge Jones accused of lying to a court of law during Kitzmiller v. Dover. Yes, this is all the Clintons’ fault.

Apsley Cherry-Garrard

… was born in Bedford, England on this date in 1886. From The Writer’s Almanac:

He’s the author of the Antarctic travelogue, The Worst Journey in the World (1922). His book is about a search for the eggs of the Emperor Penguin in 1912. He and his two companions traveled in near total darkness and temperatures that reached negative 77.5 degrees Fahrenheit. He wrote, “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.”

As noted in The 25 (Essential) Books for the Well-Read Explorer:

Cherry-Garrard’s first-person account of this infamous sufferfest is a chilling testimonial to what happens when things really go south. Many have proven better at negotiating such epic treks than Scott, Cherry, and his crew, but none have written about it more honestly and compassionately than Cherry. “The horrors of that return journey are blurred to my memory and I know they were blurred to my body at the time. I think this applies to all of us, for we were much weakened and callous. The day we got down to the penguins I had not cared whether I fell into a crevasse or not.”

Rehab

Don’t you hate it when you can’t get a song out of your head?

“Rehab,” Amy Winehouse, nominated for the Grammy for Record of the Year.

Best Rudy line of the year, so far

You’d think that a post-campaign Rudy could just go back to cutting more sweetheart business deals with various tycoons, crooks and bad actors as well as chasing more skirts. But failure doesn’t score pricey consulting contracts or babes.

So there’s a decent chance a post-presidential campaign flop Rudy would have to settle for actual monogamy from here on out.

Josh Marshall

Become America’s 22nd largest landowner

In just one $115 million installment — buy a 250,000 acre parcel of Bell Ranch in northeastern New Mexico.

An interesting article in The Albuquerque Journal ($) includes this:

There aren’t many pieces of private land left in this country where a man can stare for miles in any direction and see nothing but his own domain. The Bell is one.

The person who buys it will be the 22nd-largest landowner in the country, according to a ranking The Land Report magazine published in August.

But whoever saddles up to the $115 million asking price will be buying more than just land. They’ll be buying a piece— a very big piece— of history.

The Bell Ranch started to take shape in 1824 when a newly independent Mexico granted 655,000 acres of Indian hunting grounds to Pablo Montoya, a former captain in the Spanish army. It wasn’t until 1872 that cattle were brought to the ranch by its third owner, Wilson Waddingham. A “flamboyant Canadian” who fancied himself an Englishman, Waddingham personified cattle barons of the era and registered the Bell brand in 1874.

Best college football line of the year, so far

“The two showcase games on the sport’s grandest day were absolute dogs.”

Pete Thamel – The Quad

Thamel goes on to add:

U.S.C. blew out Illinois in the Rose Bowl, setting all kinds of records in the process. Georgia is doing the same to Hawaii here. Wouldn’t it be novel to, say, have the best teams play each other. It would have been nice to see this: A Rose Bowl of U.S.C. vs. Georgia, an Orange Bowl of Oklahoma vs. Virginia Tech, a Fiesta Bowl of Missouri vs. West Virginia, and then Hawaii vs. Arizona State in the Sugar Bowl. Instead, the B.C.S. has yet again managed to deliver a watered-down, unwatchable product. And it’s the fans that suffer.

So, take note Fox and Fox’s advertisers, I gave up on the Sugar Bowl midway through the first quarter. I imagine millions of others did the same. (Georgia eventually won 41-10.)

Thenceforward, and forever free

The Emancipation Proclamation was issued on this date in 1863.

Emancipation ProclamationAlthough the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery in the nation, it did fundamentally transform the character of the war. After January 1, 1863, every advance of Federal troops expanded the domain of freedom. Moreover, the Proclamation announced the acceptance of black men into the Union Army and Navy, enabling the liberated to become liberators. By the end of the war, almost 200,000 black soldiers and sailors had fought for the Union and freedom.

From the first days of the Civil War, slaves had acted to secure their own liberty. The Emancipation Proclamation confirmed their insistence that the war for the Union must become a war for freedom. It added moral force to the Union cause and strengthened the Union both militarily and politically. As a milestone along the road to slavery’s final destruction, the Emancipation Proclamation has assumed a place among the great documents of human freedom.

Source: The National Archives

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